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2015-16 Season Review
July 19, 2016 12:06 PM | Men's Swimming & Diving
The 2015-16 season was a record-breaking year for the Mountaineers. Whether it was academics, winning a Big 12 title and breaking Big 12 and WVU records, the WVU men’s and women’s team took another step forward in 2015-16.
“People often forget that it takes more than a year to be successful,” coach Vic Riggs said. “This season we had some very good success in and out of the pool, but there are also areas we still need to improve. The successes that the team and individuals had this year are the result of several years of hard work and dedication to make the program and themselves better. Just as this senior class has left a mark on the program, the underclassmen have the same opportunity.
“Unfortunately there were several goals we didn’t meet, however, I feel like we made a strong move towards those goals and have the program moving in the right direction.”
Seniors
The 15 Mountaineer seniors, eight women and seven men, led the 2015-16 season with commitment. As the seniors reflect back on their collegiate careers at West Virginia, the entire team also reminisces on how each senior impacted one another and the entire team.
“This year’s senior class is one of those that you hate to see go,” Riggs said. “Each one of them has had his or her own path to developing into the individuals they are today inside our program. When you put them together collectively, they are one of the strongest senior classes we’ve had since I’ve been here. What I think we will miss most is what each of them brought to the program in their own way.”
2016 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championship
West Virginia achieved several noteworthy accomplishments at the 2016 Big 12 Championship in Austin, Texas. Along with a Big 12 Championship record, multiple team and pool records were set and numerous career and season-best times were achieved. The Mountaineers earned a total of 18 medals throughout the four-day championship. Nine Mountaineers earned All-Big 12 First Team accolades for finishing in the top three and 19 were All-Big 12 Second Team for placing fourth through sixth.
“Our focus as a staff is to compete at our highest level at Big 12s, and this year it worked out that way,” Riggs said. “Once you get started in the right direction at a championship meet, it becomes contagious. I think that’s what we saw this year. Ultimately it’s up to the athletes to make that happen, and they did.”
The Mountaineer men finished second in the Big 12, posting their best finish at the conference championship since joining the league, and coach Riggs was named the Men’s Coach of the Meet for the second time in the last three years. The women’s squad finished fourth.
“We were excited to finally beat TCU at Big 12s, which has been something that has eluded us since entering the league, but our goal is to continue to see how close we can get to Texas. The Coach of the Meet award is really a staff award. It’s nice to receive it, and I’m honored to receive it, but ultimately it’s a recognition of the team’s and staff’s hard work over the season and at the meet.”
The highlight of the conference meet was senior Andrew Marsh winning a Big 12 title in the men’s 100 backstroke while setting a Big 12 Championship record. Along with the Big 12 title, Marsh added a WVU record time in the 100 butterfly. The Big 12 champion took home the gold, touching the wall in 45.41, which earned him his NCAA qualifying and career-best time. Marsh bested the previous record-holder in the 100 back, Taylor Hill (Texas ’09), by .24 seconds. Marsh is the first West Virginia swimmer to hold a championship record in any event.
Austin Smith set a WVU record on the men’s platform at the Big 12 Championship. He scored a school-record 322.55 in the prelims to advance to the finals, where he placed fourth with a score of 291.45.
“This year when Austin Smith set the men’s tower record at the Big 12 Championship was a nice highlight, since we don’t have a tower for training,” diving coach Michael Grapner said. “Alex Obendorf was tenths of a point away from breaking the men’s 3-meter team record as well. I am confident that those numbers will fall next year.”
2016 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships
Marsh qualified for the 2016 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships for the second consecutive year to cap his career as a Mountaineer. He met qualifying standards in the 50 and 100 freestyle and the 100 backstroke.
“I was very excited for him, as I know he has put in a tremendous amount of work and effort in getting back to NCAAs,” Riggs said. “It is such a difficult meet to make that just making it there is good enough for some. Andrew really worked at it, but just came up short of making the finals. Ultimately, his NCAA Championship performance this year was much better than his first and that’s what you put in all the work for.”
In the 50 freestyle, his first event, Marsh placed 45th with a time of 20.18. His second event of the weekend came in the 100 backstroke, where he placed 17th overall with a time of 46.15, just .05 seconds shy of a top-16 finish and a spot in the finals. In his final event, Marsh placed 39th in the 100 freestyle with a time of 43.64.
Academic Honors
Junior Nathan Howells was named the 2015-16 Big 12 Men’s Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the third Scholar-Athlete of the Year award for the men’s team and the fourth overall for the WVU swimming and diving program in the four years it has been in the Big 12 Conference. The Round Rock, Texas, native has maintained a 3.90 grade point average while earning a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry.
In addition to Howells’ Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor, he also was named to the 2016 Academic All-District At-Large team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The honor is the first for Howells and the sixth in program history for the WVU men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams.
The women’s squad was named a Scholar All-America Team by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) in both the fall and spring semesters. They earned a 3.27 grade point average in the fall and a 3.34 in the spring. Also awarded by the CSCAA, eight swimmers and divers were named Scholar All-Americans. Marsh was named to the first team, while Aidan Fumagalli, Jaimee Gillmore, Lindsay Schmidt, Amelie Currat, Emmott Blitch, Julia Calcut and Madelyn Woods earned honorable mention accolades.
“These awards mean a lot to me and I know they do to the program and alumni as well,” Riggs said. “Our performance in the classroom is something I am not willing to sacrifice for our success in the water. Over the past few years we have had, the strongest program in the Big 12 academically. WVU swimming and diving owns over half of the 4.0 student-athletes in the Big 12. We’ve won three of four (men) and one of four (women) Big 12 Scholar-Athletes of the Year in addition to other awards from the CSCAA. It is a major focus for our program and part of our tradition, of which I am very proud.”
Twenty-four members of the WVU swimming and diving team were named to the 2016 Academic All-Big 12 Team. Among the 102 Big 12 student-athletes honored, sophomore Amelie Currat of the women’s squad was one of two from all teams to be recognized with a perfect 4.0 GPA. Eleven honorees from the women’s team were named to the Academic All-Big 12 First Team: Madeline Bolin, Mackenzie Braden, Currat, Morgan Emter, Kelsey Frantz, Gillmore, Celia Martinez De La Torre, Katie Murto, Schmidt, Emma Skelley and Loren Williams. From the men’s team, eight received first team honors: Fumagalli, Ross Glegg, Nathan Howells, Jake Iotte, James Koval, Andrew Marsh, Joe Miller and Max Spencer. Second team honorees from the women’s team includes Mia Fiorenzi and Emma Luigard, while Frank Csonka, Austin Green and Andrew Riebel were named to the second team from the men’s squad.
Sophomore Taylor Gill of the women’s team was named a recipient of the First Team Academic Momentum Award by the Scholar Baller® program in conjunction with the National Consortium of Academics and Sports (NCAS). The award recognizes the student-athletes who have shown momentous improvements throughout their collegiate careers. Gill, majoring in exercise physiology, showed her hard work and dedication in the classroom, which gave her the academic momentum she needed to succeed. She was the first member of the Mountaineer swimming and diving team to receive the Academic Momentum Award.
2016 NCAA Zone A Diving Championship
West Virginia had nine student-athletes qualify to compete at the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships in Annapolis, Maryland – senior Lindsay Schmidt, sophomores Michael Proietto, Logan McHenry and Alex Obendorf and freshmen Averly Hobbs, Calcut, Woods, Austin Smith and Emmott Blitch.
“The NCAA Zone Championship is very challenging mentally and physically,” Grapner said. “This is the largest competition of the season with more than 50 athletes in each of the men’s and women’s events. It is a long three-hour competition for a student-athlete to only do six dives. In addition to the physical demands, the competition is composed of all zone qualifiers in our region and some of the top athletes in the country. This year the men’s NCAA 3-meters champion was from our zone. It was especially hard for us because we were so young. For the guys, they are all freshmen and sophomores and only Alex (Obendorf) and Mike (Proietto) have been there before. On the women’s side, Maddy (Woods) and Julia (Calcut) held their own and handled the competition experience very well. Unfortunately, Lindsay Schmidt, who was senior, couldn't compete due to injury.”
Proietto advanced to the finals on 3-meter, 1-meter and platform. On the 3-meter springboard, he placed 17th in the prelims with a score of 298.85 to advance to the finals where he finished 14th overall with a 316.3 and a combined score of 615.15. The sophomore advanced to his second final on 1-meter after placing 15th in the prelims (285.40). He placed eighth in the finals with a combined score of 598.10. Proietto advanced to the finals on platform after placing 11th in the prelims (278.05). He finished 12th in the finals with a combined score of 519.85.
“I was pleased with Mike,” Grapner said. “I think he finally realized his potential and understands that he can compete at this level. I think the other guys are a lot better performers than they showed me at this meet, but again, I need to remind myself they are young and just need more experience at this level. It is always my goal to have a diver qualify for the NCAA Championships. However, only the top five divers make it, so I tell them to shoot for qualifying to finals and then compete to dive at NCAAs.”
Obendorf notched a top-10 finish in the prelims on 1-meter, placing ninth with a score of 296.60. In the finals, he placed 10th with a 298.70 and a combined score of 595.30.
For the Mountaineer women, Calcut advanced to the finals on 3-meter and on platform. Thanks to her prelims score of 253.95 and a 16th-place finish on 3-meter, she advanced to the finals where she placed 16th overall with a score of 251.35 and a combined score of 505.30. On platform, Calcut placed 12th with a score of 385.85.
“I think Maddy and Julia had outstanding performances,” Grapner said. “They handled the competition as a good learning experience and were able to see the value of their hard work from the season. They now know what it takes to qualify for the NCAA Championships and have started to set their goals higher. I am looking forward to seeing what they will do in the next three years.”
U.S. Olympic Trial Qualifiers
Four members of the men’s swimming team competed at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials from June 26-July 3 in Omaha, Nebraska. WVU graduate Bryce Bohman, seniors Andrew Marsh, Max Spencer and junior Nate Carr raced in a total of nine events at the Olympic Trials in hopes of earning a spot on the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team.
“Though we didn't reach our goal of getting a second swim this week, we did have our most consistent week with top-30 finishes, lifetime-best times and swimming fast in prelims,” said coach Vic Riggs. “Having Andrew place 20th in the 100 backstroke and Bryce at No. 18 in the 100 butterfly are the team's highest placings at this meet in team history.
“I'm very proud of all of them this week. Obviously your goal is to come here and have everything go perfectly. When it doesn't, you learn a lot about how mentally tough you are. The way each of these four young men competed and made the appropriate adjustments to find those best times and swims this week was great to see and says a lot about each of them.”
The trials began on June 26, when Carr placed 78th in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:32.62. Competition on June 27 was highlighted by Bohman’s and Marsh’s top-30 finishes in the 100-meter backstroke. In a field of 183 swimmers, Marsh placed 20th overall with a personal-best time of 55.63, while Bohman touched the wall in 30th with a 55.91.
On June 29, Marsh tied for 46th place overall and finished second in his heat in the 100 freestyle with a time of 50.46. Spencer raced in the 200 breaststroke, finishing 60th with a time of 2:19.11. On June 30, Carr competed in the 200 individual medley, finishing second in his heat and 30th overall with a personal-best time of 2:03.44.
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